White clouds
by ShadowDianne
Summary: If Regina would have been able to say anything, to even emit a sound, she would have gladly talked to that figure that stood in front of her, unwavering. Songfic, more or less, written with the aid of Diamonds and rust song.


A/N Dedicated to Pau. The image that came to my mind when I heard the song she sent me was Regina and Emma dancing slowly in the middle of the forest, snow falling from the sky. So I took that scene and I wrote…. This.

 _Here comes your ghost again_

 _But that's not unusual_

 _It's just that the moon is full_

 _And you happened to call -_

White clouds

The moon hung high in the sky, its silver light bathing the shadows in which the forest that surrounded the town seemed to feed on, its long fingers reaching for every crevice and hiding spot as Regina walked through it, savoring the feeling of quietness around her, hands around her body, a vacant expression on her eyes.

She almost smiled when her feet brought her to the well, long ago forgotten and useless but its magic still oozing out of him, like the shadow of something that wasn't there anymore.

"Like me" She thought, a sigh on her lips, a gentle wave of her fingers and the strangely growing wind that kept whistling around her disappeared for a second, carrying with it the sounds of the forest and the ones that were potentially magical, threats maybe about to happen. Bound to.

She felt suddenly tired as she eyed the well's clearing, noticing the new plants that now seemed to grow there, the vines threatening to climb up the well's stone walls. She eyed the edge of the well and sighed, the questions bubbling inside her almost pushing her insides, shredding her chest and breaking it in two.

With slow fingers she played with the ring that she always kept on her fingers, the coldness in the air caressing her cheeks, tears hot against her now rapidly cooling skin, her whole body stiff as the whispers and murmurs in the forest seemed to grow in intensity until it looked that they echoed through the entire place, a blanket of silence that wasn't exactly silence, that wasn't exactly sound, curling at the back of her head, whispering her words of magic and loss.

She didn't tremble when the figure appeared, nor she took a step back when the darkness around the woman that was now at the well, the place in where it hadn't been anything a few seconds before, looked straightly at her, tight smile and emerald eyes the only thing visible in that split second in where their eyes locked.

And if Regina would have been able to say anything, to even emit a sound, she would have gladly talked to that figure that stood in front of her, unwavering.

She, however, wasn't able to do that and so she eyed the darkness that licked the blonde's figure once and again until every detail of her body and face seemed to glint under the light of the moon. Long fingers caressed the well's walls, magic seeming to ooze out of them effortlessly in thick, curious, tendrils that disappeared as quickly as they touched the forest floor, mist coming out of them, the leaves hissing at the contact of that magic, in its place white flowers growing just as quickly as they died. The same constricting pain than before curling on her throat, making her impossible to swallow as Emma finally appeared fully, her newly formed legs taking a step towards her, blonde hair shimmering slightly on the clearing as she walked.

"Regina" She said, a breathy sound, a small smile, one that Regina found herself missing too much to even try to feign anything else but a nod. "You came"

"I did"

The blonde's exuded cold, cold that Regina had ever experienced before, and as the other woman approached her even more a short shiver run up and down the brunette's spine, her trained eyes seeing the minute but real incongruences on Emma's being; the titillating shadow that followed the blonde's movements, the slightly vacant stare on her eyes, almost as if there was something else behind those green irises. The malleable mist that seemed about to engulf the clearing as they stared at each other, her own body still stiff but not petrified.

"How is Hell?" She found herself asking, licking her lips and looking at her hands as the question fell down from them, it's tired but real venom almost crawling down her tongue, leaving behind a foul taste of unshed tears and lies. And regret.

Emma didn't answer, a nod and a shrug the only thing Regina received, green eyes staring at something that Regina couldn't quite place before the mirage was restored once again, a shiver working once again up and down the brunette's back, her brown eyes staring at Emma, the sound of the woman's voice too realistic, too well done.

Not that she doubted the reality of Emma's presence but still, her hands burnt with the need to see, to touch, to comprehend. She missed the blonde, the nightmares, the quiet and yet too vague confessions made at one side of the river, ghosts and death surrounding them, being brought back once and again by nightmares and dreams, murmurs of love and hate falling from her lips every single time she tried to sleep, Emma's sacrifice choking her every time she did so.

And so the blonde in front of her needed to be Emma, needed to be her shadow, her spirit. Her voice maybe too airy, her eyes maybe too lost, time already working against them, but she needed to believe, to think that they could, that they would be able to save her this time.

"I miss you" Emma finally said and the cold seemed to grow around them with each passing second, blue mixing with the green, tales untold waiting for Regina to push, to ask. But the brunette licked her lips and looked away, the same ball of tears and rage that seemed to consume her growing once again, swirling and pushing and hitting her.

And yes, Regina also missed the woman in front of her, her right hand rising and falling millimeters apart from Emma's body, cold and wind and magic twitching under her fingers, a reminder.

"I miss you too"

It was a whisper, a moment of time already passed, a memory the two of them didn't know how to work with, cold and wind and night and shadows growing around them, the well's magic seeping out of it, waiting, expecting.

"I thought you wouldn't be able to pass the limits" Regina finally murmured, her hand back at her, close to her chest, lips and eyes and fingers screaming to move when Emma nodded, her blonde hair floating for a second before settling it down.

Emma didn't answer to that, eyes turning lost once again, a sigh escaping her lips, her clothes shinning against the moonlight, hands smoothing the creases that Regina couldn't see and for a second the two of them fell silent, desire of doing something else, to have changed something, to have done something, heavily hovering between the two of them.

And Regina felt the tears and choked words that tried to come from the part of her she had hidden the moment she had opened her eyes and she had been back from Hell, Emma's name on her lips and an old scream on her throat, her hands empty, her whole body seeming as if someone had snatched something from inside of her with brutal force, leaving nothing behind, a hole.

Emma didn't move, didn't say anything until the night seemed seconds away from eating the moon's light and so she closed the final distance between the two them; her arms falling easily around Regina, her chin on the brunette's temple, her lips, cold, too cold, touching the skin there, painting drawings that made Regina's body ache, her whole body stiff, her yearn growing and receding, like smoke trying to be caught by nimble fingers.

And Regina felt herself drowning, felt herself tired and strong, weak and awake, lucidity clouding her judgement, magic overtaking her fears.

"I thought…" She started and she felt Emma's nod against her, answering a question she wasn't entirely sure of what it was. She felt unhinged, floating around a sea of what ifs, of what she could have done, of what she could have said.

Blinking, she felt Emma's body starting to sway back and forth, a dance she had known for years, from her times as the child of a noble in which she needed to lead and dance in order to find a suitable husband, coming back, no music, no pretenses, just the two of them and it was in that moment in where Emma's eyes looked greener than ever, her presence too real to be fake, too unreal to be true. The brunette's hands burnt with cold and snow and Regina needed to blink as she saw the drawings flakes and wind seemed to create on Emma's cheeks as it started to snow, their breathes mixing together as they breathed, promises echoing on each step they made around the well as they danced a dance Regina realized would have been hers back on Camelot, back when everything was different, back when she had thought…

Emma moved her around, letting her take the lead every now and then, a soft smile on her lips, almost as if there was something else, a piece of mystery Regina wasn't sure she would ever want to know.

The snow kept falling even when they stopped momentarily, their hands now touching, their bodies aligned, their chests brushing and Regina felt the exhilarant nervousness of a girl being taken to a first ball, a nervousness she should have felt too many years ago that the number almost hurt.

"I owned you one" Emma said, smile on her face, cheeky yet not exactly smirk on place, green eyes staring, shimmering.

And so did she, and the two of them knew that Regina owned Emma something much bigger than just a dance but they didn't mention that, mist coming out of their mouths, the need of asking the blonde to move away, to cross the border of the city and never coming back in order to be safe screaming inside Regina, her hands probing the blonde's shoulder, finding it real and yet not exactly, a warning, a memory.

And everything seemed to be mist now, memories of Hell, of what Emma had done in order to restore everyone's lives, the deal, her eyes, full of something that had made Regina stand and fight, tears falling down her eyes, realization hitting her. And it hurt, it hurt and it scorched all the way down her throat in where the words she had wanted to say were still there, waiting.

She would, she had, she…

"I'm sorry" She said, closing her eyes, Emma presence still around her, like a blanket, a hug that never exactly arrived.

Magic buzzed and cinnamon seemed to burn on her nostrils.

"It's ok" She heard but she knew it wasn't, she knew that it was better to pretend that those moments hadn't actually happened, pain too much if she ever acknowledge it, but she needed that, needed it.

"It's not" She whispered and when she finally opened her eyes she found herself alone, snow still falling and no traces, no shadow, no magic. Just an inert well that stared back at her, stubbornly.

"I love you Emma"

Too late.


End file.
